Luzelda’s Amazing Soothing Cream
by Dwight4Studly
Summary: Four-year-old Harry has a food allergy and Remus and Sirius, being his guardians, struggle with the outcome. AU, one shot, slash.


Luzelda's Amazing Soothing Cream 

Rating: PG

Summery: Four-year-old Harry has a food allergy and Remus and Sirius, being his guardians, struggle with the outcome. AU, one shot, slash.

A.N./ This story is inspired by this weekend when I had a really bad allergic reaction. I love the idea that Remus and Sirius could raise Harry when he was a child. I hope I do it justice. Please review if you like it!

Harry itched.

All over.

And it was killing him.

He wasn't the only one suffering, though. Remus sat on the couch, little four year Harry curled in his lap, wondering what had gone wrong. One moment they were sitting around the table, having a nice peanut butter and jam sandwich, next Harry was swelling up and scratching all over. Harry grabbed at his sleeve, shoving it up to attack the sensitive, inflamed skin. Remus swatted at the twitching fingers.

"Harry, if you scratch it will only make it worse."

Harry whimpered, surveying the puffy red skin on his fore arm. "But it hurts! When is it going to be over?"

"Soon, little one." Sirius said, walking into the room from the kitchen. He shook his head nervously because this had never happened before. How was he to know that Harry would have a bad food allergy pop up out of nowhere? How many times do random bizarre allergies just show up? It just didn't make sense. He bit his lip when he thought that Lily would have known what to do. He felt like such a horrible godfather. Remus looked up and smiled at him reassuringly

Harry whimpered again in pain and frustration. Sirius pulled him up off of the couch, lifting the little boy's shirt to examine his belly. Large splotches of skin puckered and puffed around his belly button.

"Am I dying?" Harry asked, large tears appearing in his eyes.

Remus chuckled and Sirius smiled up at him from kneeling. "Of course not, Harry."

"I feel like I'm dying," he said dramatically, flopping onto the couch beside his other guardian. He reached up again and started to rake his blunt nails over his neck. Remus grabbed his wrist before he could make another attempt to lessen the pain.

"I'm going to have to tie a sock to your hands if you don't stop," he warned, looking up at Sirius to help intervene. Remus hated how he was always the one to enforce the rules.

"Sock hands! Stinky, sweaty sock hands!" Sirius teased, poking Harry in the side. The boy scrunched his face up and laughed, twisting his thin body away from the prodding hands. But these high spirits didn't last long.

Harry gave a long disgruntled groan and started to complain again.

"Have we any more cooling cream?" Remus asked desperately, blocking Harry's small hands and rubbing his back soothingly. Harry pouted and leaned into the rubbing, as if he were a puppy needing assistance.

"Urm …I think we used the rest of it last night when we-" Sirius said, looking over at him incredulously, furrowing his brow in concern that Remus would be so lewd in Harry's presence.

"Not that cream, Sirius. Don't even imply things like that in front of Harry." Remus cried, but shut his mouth, seeing if Harry was paying any attention to either of them. He wasn't, too busy with rubbing at his hives to even care. "If we don't have any, then you need to go to town to buy more. I can give Harry a bath while you're gone."

"No bath!" Harry cried, wriggling away from the couch and stomped off.

Remus sighed, standing wearily. "He's agitated. Just hurry," he said, ruffling his hand through Sirius' hair. Sirius heaved a tired, yet contented, groan from his throat at the touch and stood to leave.

When Sirius Apparated to Diagon Ally, and headed to the Apothecary. When he stepped inside, a disgruntled looking witch stared at him from behind the counter and made no move to help him. He walked up and down a few isles, finding potions varying from wart remover to Madame Zoe's age reducer. He couldn't seem to find cream to help little four-year-old boys and the bad case of hives.

He finally picked up a blue bottle with curly writing defining that it was some sort of soothing cream and sniffed at the cap. It seemed harmless enough, so he headed to the counter to pay.

Remus was bustling around the kitchen, fixing honey tea when Sirius returned home. A pajama clad Harry lay quietly on his back in the center of the sitting area, oven mitts covering his small hands. He would reach up to ravage a rather puffy piece of flesh, but found that he was unable to bring much relief to the area and gave up.

When Harry spotted him, he jumped up and ran to him. "Remus said that it would be better when you got home. Well, I'm not," he said haughtily, bottom lip puffing out just as much as the skin on his arms.

"I think it is a bit better," Sirius said, pointing to the receding rash on the boy's neck.

"That's because he made me wear these stupid socks," cried Harry in embarrassment.

Remus came in from the kitchen, brandishing a steaming mug. "For the last time, Harry. They are not socks! I promised that I wouldn't put socks on your hands, remember."

"They're still stupid." Harry said, lowering his head as he let his messy bangs fall in his eyes.

Remus sighed and handed the mug to Sirius and started to take the oven mitts off. "You'll need to drink this, Harry." Remus said, nodding to the mug. "It will make the itching go away."

"That's what you said about the socks."

Sirius grimaced at the hidden look of annoyance in Remus' eyes and patted Harry on the shoulder. "I brought you some cream to make the itches go away."

Harry didn't seem to be fazed as he took his mug and sipped the hot honey liquid. Sirius reached into his cloak and pulled out the blue jar. Remus helped Harry take his shirt off and set the mug down.

Twisting the lid off the bottle, the two men started to lather the boy up from head to toe. Every bump, every red patch wasn't missed as they rubbed the ivory cream across Harry's tiny body. He whined, continuing to complain that it didn't help or it was too cold.

When they were through, Harry sat down and stared at them with vibrant emerald eyes. But the lids started to droop and the green orbs started to glaze over hazily. The boy went very silent for a moment and reached for the mug. He gave a soft sigh before he fell short of the mug and he fell over.

Sirius sat stunned for a second, and swiveled his head hurriedly to Remus. The other man's eyes were wide in horror, hand still gripping the blue bottle. Slowly, as if struggling through a freezing hex, he lifted the bottle and read aloud:

"Luzelda's Amazing Soothing Cream. World-renowned contact narcotic and will undoubtedly put any wizard to a long doze instantly. Use with caution: If in contact with eyes, please contact the closest healer near you. If applied too heavily, risks may occur. These risks include skin pigment of either blue or green and sleeping periods ranging from one to three weeks. If either of these occur, please purchase Harlequin's Rebound Rejecting Lotion. Not deadly."

Remus dropped the bottle to the ground when a loud snore erupted from the tiny body of the boy in the middle of the floor.

_Zzzzzz_

Sirius tucked Harry into bed, pulling the sheets around his neck and planted a soft kiss to his brow. Harry's jaw lay slack and another snore pierced the air. He really was a cardboard copy of his father.

When he returned to the sitting room Remus lay on his back on the couch, one arm over his eyes. Sirius poked his shoulder, pushing him aside so that he could sit. Remus grunted, sitting up to give him room. Plopping down on the couch, Sirius leaned his head back and sighed heavily. Remus sat there quietly for a while before he turned his head to avert his eyes from Sirius.

"I always feel like I'm the bad guy," he said, concern lacing his baritone voice.

Sirius smirked and tapped his shoulder playfully. "You can't help that you're boring. Or that Harry likes me better."

Remus pinched back, not bothering to mask the bitter look on his face. "I'm serious. I think that Harry resents me because I make all the rules. You're just a lazy bastard."

"Oh come on, Moony," Sirius said, curling up against him. "You know I was just teasing you. Harry loves you."

"Sometimes I don't think that's true," Remus said solemnly.

Sirius frowned, lost on what to say. Remus chewed at the bottom of his lip, obviously distressed. Smiling softly, Sirius ran his fingers through Remus' hair – just the way he liked it. He had expected Remus to pull away, but he leaned in obviously too tired to fuss.

"Who bought Harry his first toy, hmn?" Sirius asked, placing a kiss to the side of Remus' neck.

"You."

"Oh. Well, who reads to him when he has a tummy ache? Who takes care of him when he scratches his knee? Remus, Harry loves you and appreciates you just as much as he does with me. He was just irritated today. He had it rough."

"Well," Remus said hesitantly, "I guess. But I still feel-"

"Don't. Just feel this," Sirius said and kissed his neck again, moving his way to thin soft lips. They share a tender kiss, softly caressing each other's cheeks and nuzzle gently. Sirius pulled away, smiling against Remus lips.

"Are we really out of lotion?"

"Sirius!" Remus cried, shoving him away and reaching up to scratch his collarbone.


End file.
